Violent crime falls, but thieves vex Houston

A mixed picture of crime in HoustonViolent crime shows a sharp decrease, but rise in burglaries, thefts hurt overall rate

JAMES PINKERTON, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Published
5:30 am CDT, Saturday, August 14, 2010

Violent crime in Houston fell 8 percent during the first half of the year, while property crimes including burglary and theft continue to bedevil Houston police detectives, crime records indicate.

The slowing of violent crimes such as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault is in sharp contrast to a continuing plague of thieves breaking into Houston homes and automobiles.

These two property crimes not only continue to rise in numbers, but Houston police clear by an arrest only 8 percent of the burglary cases and 15 percent of the theft cases, the records show.

If Houston's violent crime rate continues its slow pace for the rest of the year — mirroring a trend in falling crime rates in Texas and across the nation — the city is on target to reach 1,000 crimes per 100,000 residents, the lowest since 2000.

Houston Police Department Executive Assistant Chief Timothy Oettmeier declined to predict if violent crimes would reach historic lows by the end of the year, but he insisted that reducing burglaries and car break-ins is key to lowering Houston's overall crime rate.

"The drivers of the crime rate in the city of Houston are two offenses — burglaries and thefts. They represent at least … 70 percent of the crime in the city of Houston," Oettmeier said. "So the overall crime rate in the city of Houston is locked into how well we as a city can manage those two crimes. We're doing really well in the violent crime category, but unfortunately the volume of crime, from a statistical viewpoint, is not sufficient to drive the crime rate down because we have so many burglaries and so many thefts.“

Overall thefts in Houston, which include shoplifting and car break-ins, have increased 1.7 percent. However, police are starting to see a dent in vehicle burglaries — they have dropped 6 percent so far this year — and credit public education campaigns in which officers warned drivers who left their cars unlocked or valuables in plain sight.

Oettmeier said the department is doing the best it can to reduce burglaries — which increased 1.2 percent over last year — but won't divert officers and endanger the reduction in violent crime.

"That's part of the challenge. Do we need more resources to do a better job to address burglaries, yes,“ said Oettmeier. "Part of that discussion has to be centered on what can citizens do to help us a little bit. “

"It's not just a local Houston phenomenon," said Snell. "The thing is, criminologists don't know for sure why violent crime is going down. They've got some theories, but they don't know for certain. It's one of the frustrations of not having really good measures of crime.“

Snell said the theories include past improvements in the economy as well as police departments doing a better job of educating the public about how to avoid becoming crime victims.

Some of the cities surrounding Houston report similar trends in their crime statistics.

In Sugar Land, police have not recorded a homicide since 2005, sexual attacks and aggravated assaults are down, and burglary and theft are the most frequent crimes.

"For the last five years, our crime rate overall has remained fairly flat. Our violent crimes were down, and the categories where we've seen increases are burglaries of motor vehicles and robberies,“ said city spokesman Doug Adolph.

Pasadena's crime rate

Pasadena Assistant Police Chief A.H. "Bud“ Corbett said that during the first six months of the year, rapes are up 51 percent, theft is up 10 percent and burglary 1 percent. The number of murders stayed the same, while robbery, aggravated assault and auto thefts were all down.

Pasadena formed a plainclothes tactical unit in early January to address rising burglary and thefts and was able to keep the growth of burglaries to 1 percent and reduce robbery by 9 percent, Corbett said.

Most police departments in the nation forward their crime statistics to the FBI for inclusion in the Uniform Crime Report, which includes the four violent crimes of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Three crime categories deemed non-violent — burglary, theft and auto theft — are also part of the UCR statistics.

UCR crime statistics are a listing of crimes reported to the police, and criminal experts caution that many crimes, aside from murder, are never reported.